


verliebt in dich

by eyesonly



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Canon Era, Judaism, M/M, Mentions of anti-Semitism, Post-Canon, immigrant Davey, liberal use of German, roughly 1904
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 09:03:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15770931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyesonly/pseuds/eyesonly
Summary: Jack doesn’t like people snooping in his personal business and has always granted the courtesy to others, especially Davey. But there was always this niggling part of him that just wanted to know the history of the man who profoundly changed his life for the better.





	verliebt in dich

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just taking a lot of liberties here and making up Davey's life because He's. So. Damn. Interesting.
> 
> Heads up, I'm not Jewish or German, but I felt like I did my research and did my best to be as respectful as possible?
> 
> This all basically started when I was reading an article on actual-Jew Ben Fankhauser. And then I was musing over the fact that Les, whether his name is Lester or Leslie, is not a Hebrew name at all while Meyer, Esther, Sarah, and David are. Thus, creating my own weird little hc that Les was the first one born in the States and was given a more "Americanized" name. And then this happened and idk. 
> 
> I just really love Jewish Davey?????

Years had passed since the strike, but Davey and Jack still found themselves together on a rooftop.

It wasn’t the same rooftop of their childhood, but it was a nice roof nonetheless. It was just as private and had an arguably better look at the ever expanding New York City. One Jack was helping to create as a steelworker helping build new buildings called “skyscrapers”. 

Sure paid a hell of a lot better than pushing papes.

“You came here on a boat, didn’tcha Dave? Ellis Island?” Jack asks breaking the silence, a puff of smoke coming out with the question.

Davey looks over at him and nods a little. “I don’t think Ellis Island was open yet, but yeah, I immigrated to the States on a boat.”

Jack offers him the cigarette and instinctively he shakes his head.

Even though he’s 21, a cub reporter for The World, living on his own, and his mom would have no way to know...

He still feels like his mom would somehow just _know_.

Jack shrugs at his decline and puffs away at the cigarette, mulling on how to ask the real question. He doesn’t like people snooping in his personal business and has always granted the courtesy to others, especially Davey. But there was always this niggling part of him that just wanted to know the history of the man who profoundly changed his life for the better.

“Why I asks is I was talkin’ to Race at work after listening to some of the other guys talkin’ about immigratin’, I bein’ one of the only City born guys there. So he was telling me how his parents had to change their last name, so they didn’t sound too Italian so they could get jobs and stuff? And I was just thinkin’ about you and your parents and if they had to do that?”

Davey pauses and then plucks the cigarette from Jack’s fingers and takes a drag, causing Jack to chuckle softly at the temptation giving in.

“Uh...yeah, we did. I was just a kid though, maybe seven or eight? Ima was pregnant with Les. She had him a couple months after we got here,” Davey says softly.

Jack hums thinking of a young Davey, picturing a gangly little thing, all limbs, tripping over himself. Not too far off from the adult Davey, to be honest.

“So what was your last name?” Jack takes another pull of the cigarette before offering back to Davey who takes it freely this time.

“Yakobovitz. And my name wasn’t David,” he says casually, smoke billowing out with the words.

Jack scoffs at him stealing the cigarette back.

“So you’re tellin’ me, you gave me all sorts of hell for tellin’ you my name ain’t really Jack Kelly, and here you are, years later, just now tellin’ me your name ain’t David Jacobs?” Jack berates him teasingly.

David smiles softly a him, knocking his knees.

“David Anshel Yakobovitz,” Davey explains, “David is pronounced Dah-veed in Hebrew, not Day-vid. And Jacobs is roughly the English translation of Yakobovitz, Yaakov is Jacob in Hebrew.”

Jack whispers out a soft “oh” and then beams even bigger.

“Dah-veed. Davey sounds closer to your real name now,” he knocks his knees back into Davey’s.

Davey shrugs with a smile and takes his own final drag of the cigarette.

“Where did you come from?” Jack questions gently.

“Germany, but Ima is from Poland originally,” Davey explains as they keep passing back and forth the cigarette.

“Was it hard learning English?”

Davey laughs softly and shakes his head.

“I knew English when I came. Papa was a college professor back in Germany. He taught us English and French. Well, on top of German, Hebrew, and some Polish,” Davey looks over at him with a warm smile.

“Y’can speak French?” Jack scrunches up his face.

“Oui, un peu,” he pinches his fingers toward each other, “I don’t remember a lot, it’s been years.”

“But you still remember German?”

Davey quickly nods.

“It’s all we usually speak at home,” he chuckles. “Just not around you, _liebling_.”

Jack scrunches his nose at the foreign word.

“Do I want to know what that means?”

“Probably not,” Davey teases with a wink.

Jack finishes off the cigarette and tosses it aside to smother the ember with the toe of his boot before he pops his head up with a confused look.

“Wait, if your dad was a professor, what is he doing workin’ in a crummy factory and not teaching at some fancy school?” Jack frowns at the thought.

Davey stiffens a little and shrugs. 

“Just ‘cause he had a degree and stuff in Germany, don’t mean it came over here. Papa and Ima gave up everything to come here,” he says softly. “We had a real big house in Germany, it was in the middle of this big field, you coulda fit a coupla apartment blocks on the land! Sarah and I would just run around for hours, catching bugs, and Ima would show us how to press flowers. It was the greenest place in the whole world, I think.”

Jack frowns even more as he listens to Davey.

“And y’gave that all up for the concrete jungle of New York City?” His voice was incredulous.

Davey looks down and then back up at Jack.

“Jack, be honest, what do you know about Jews?’

Jack gives a half-hearted shrug.

“I don’t know? I mean, I know ya family is? It’s like goin’ t’church but different, I guess. Why’re ya askin’ me, y’know I ain’t got much goin’ on up here,” he taps his head, “and I ain’t a world traveller like some folks,” he nudges Davey playfully.

Davey rolls his eyes.

“You’re plenty smart, Jack, don’t be like that.”

“Okay, Mr. Columbia,” Jack teases in a mocking voice.

Davey takes that moment to slide his arm in the crook of Jack’s elbow, resting his head on Jack’s shoulder.

“A lot of people don’t like people like me, Jack. Especially in Germany and a lot of other places in Europe. Our people, _my people_ , didn’t have rights for a really long time. We got rights now, but there are a lot of people that want to get rid of us, like we’re not people or something. Really bad people tried to get Papa fired from his job and the university wouldn’t. So the people threatened him. He didn’t quit. Then they hurt him and threatened us. Ima, Sarah, me. Papa sold everything he could and bought us train tickets to England, then we got on a boat to New York. We barely had anything, and Papa’s degree meant nothing. He was one of the smartest linguists in all of Europe, Jackie. He threw everything away for us. That’s why it nearly killed him when Les and I quit school, he’s sacrificed everything so we could have the life he lost. Les doesn’t even know how much our parents gave up for us.”

Jack’s heart felt like it was simultaneously swelling and falling. It was obviously hard for Davey to talk about, and it was clearly something he’s held onto in secret for years.

“Your dad is a damn good man, y’know that?” Jack says softly.

Davey nods, as a tear trails over the bridge of his nose, dripping onto Jack’s shirt.

“Aw, Dave. Hey, I didn’t mean for y’to get upset. I shouldn’tave been pryin’. C’mere,” He pulls the taller man into a strong embrace.

Davey shakes his head and wipes his face, with a soft laugh.

“No it’s okay, I’m just a big baby,” he tries to defend self-deprecatingly.

“Y’ever talk about this before, to anyone?”

Davey shakes his head.

“Never, Papa and Ima didn’t want us to talk about it in front of Les and it was always...too hard I guess. It just kind of felt like a dream, y’know? It was so long ago it doesn’t feel real anymore, like I’m telling someone else’s story. It’s like I’ve lived so many different lives all in one,” he still sniffles but is smiling now, “German, immigrant American, student, Newsie, college graduate, reporter...”

Jack smiles a little as presses a kiss onto Davey’s head through the waves of his dark hair.

“What life are y’livin’ now?” He muses softly.

Davey pulls his head up and presses a smokey kiss against Jack’s lips.

“The best one, _verliebt_ ,” Davey whispers against his lips.

“Ver what?” Jack chuckles, nuzzling his nose against Davey’s.

“ _Verliebt in dich_. In love, Jackie. In love with you.”

**Author's Note:**

> oh liebling means darling. v innocuous but its gonna bother jack for awhile >:)
> 
> follow me on my newsies tumblr @walkin-mouth
> 
> or 
> 
> visit my multifandom dumpster fire @deanogarbage


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